At present, cell cultures of various animals and plants are performed, and also new cell culture methods are in development. The technologies of the cell culture are utilized, such as to elucidate the biochemical phenomena and natures of cells and to produce useful substances. Furthermore, with cultured cells, an attempt to investigate the physiological activity and toxicity of artificially synthesized medical is under way. Moreover, in the field of the medicine and others, artificial production of tissues and organs has been attempted by re-organizing such as cells, proteins, glucides, or lipids of living bodies by the technique of the cell engineering, or the like.
Here, since the common animal cells perish without supply of the nutrients, or the like, in the case of using cultured cells as, for example, the artificial tissues, it is necessary to provide the capillary blood vessels in the artificial tissues and the blood for passing through therein for supplying such as the oxygen or nutrients, and carrying out the metabolic decomposition products. Moreover, disorders, in which an infarct in micro blood vessels within the living body occurs, and the supply of oxygen and nutrients or the transfer of metabolic decomposition products are not sufficiently performed exist.
To respond to such problems, conventionally, for example, artificial formation of the capillary blood vessels has been attempted by the techniques of the Non-Patent Documents 1 to 3, however, in either case, only the vessel-like tissues (capillaries) are formed in disorder so that it has been difficult to form capillary blood vessels capable of providing a necessary amount of the blood to a desired position for maintaining the function of the artificial tissues or infarct site treatment of micro blood vessels. Moreover, as described in Non-Patent Document 4 or 5, a forming method of blood vessels by utilizing an artificial material has been studied, however, it is difficult to form narrow blood vessels and the artificial blood vessels which can be utilized for infarct site treatment of micro blood vessels and the construction of an artificial tissue could not be formed.
On the other hand, the present inventors have proposed a method of culturing cells in a pattern by changing the surface of a layer having cell adhesive properties or cell adhesion-inhibiting properties by the function of a photocatalyst accompanied by the irradiation with energy for forming a pattern comprising a cell adhesion portion and a cell adhesion-inhibiting portion and highly accurately adhering the cells only to the cell adhesion portion. According to the patterning method, the cells are stimulated at the boundary of the cell adhesion portion and the cell adhesion-inhibiting portion so that the cells adhered in a pattern can be aligned or the morphological change to the stretching state can be promoted strongly as a result. Using the present method, it became possible that by culturing vascular endothelial cells in a pattern form and further by making an anchorage material for deriving the vascular endothelial cells into a blood vessel tissue in contact with the endothelial cells and transcribing the cells, a narrow blood vessel tissue along the desired pattern is formed. However, the technology for forming these blood vessels in a form suitable for the infarction site treatment of the micro blood vessels and the construction of the above-described artificial tissue has not yet been invented.    [Non-Patent Documents 1] D. E. Ingber, et al., The Journal of Cell Biology (1989) p. 317—    [Non-Patent Documents 2] B. J. Spargo, et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (1994) p. 11070—    [Non-Patent Documents 3] R. Auerbach et al., Clinical Chemistry (2003) p. 32—    [Non-Patent Documents 4] C. B. Weinberg, et al., Science (1986) p. 397—    [Non-Patent Documents 5] N. L'. Heureux, et al., The FASEB Journal (1998) vol. 12 p. 47—